It's all just Practice
My attitude going into the new year
New Year. New Week. 2023 is Here
People often take this time of year to start up new challenges and exciting goals for themselves. Many tend to fall off such challenges, I know I have in the past, while some persevere and inevitably succeed. My goals for 2023 are the same as 2022 with one key difference…
Publishing.
I made a commitment to myself this year to take all the stories I’ve written that were sent back to me and compile a few volumes of short fiction to be published independently under my own imprint. 2023 is the year of publishing. All of it. Stories I’ve locked away in a drawing vowing for them to never see the light of day. It’s not easy, revisiting old work that often fills me with a sense of unease as my inner critic crawls out its cave to rip my work to shreds.
But there is something to be said about putting your work out there as a testament of your skill level at the time you created it. My skills have improved over the year and continue to develop with each story.
Yes, I still send out stories to top paying markets and yes, they still get rejected but fear not I say! Rejection is part of the process of shedding your amateurish skin and growing to become a professional. Working almost four years as a sales rep has taught me this. There are new things I’m looking to experiment with this year as I continue my journey into fiction. Regardless of how many rejection slips I rack up, my enthusiasm continues to be at an all-time high. This is because of a small shift in attitude that I first learned two years ago that now, having spent almost a year writing stories and submitting them to magazines, is engraved on my mind and become my personal philosophy with anything creative. It’s all just practice.
That’s my attitude. Every story or creative work is simply a dress rehearsal for me. This attitude liberates me from any pressures to constantly polish and edit my work into dust.
Some friends and I made a bet last month on who could write the best Christmas ghost story. Each man wrote a short story and submitted it to a panel of judges (huge thank you Tom, Vanya, and Jeanne for reading all four stories) who each picked their favorite and the winner received some cash for Christmas. Sadly, I did not win (congrats again Brady ya rotten brilliant bastard!) but not only did I have a great deal of fun, I learned that while each story was good and unique to each of their respective writers, the competition came down to a matter of taste. One judge had a soft spot for the extra details and layered meaning of one story, while another judge was a big fan of well written dialogue and the use of noir atmosphere. The point I am making is you can’t account for a reader’s personal taste in your work. Or to put it in the context that my former writing mentor Harvey Stanbrough1 told me:
“Out of 1000 readers out there who read that story (if you publish it), around 100 will flat LOVE it. Another 100 or so will think it sucks canal water from all 50 states. But around 800 will think it's all right, good enough that they'll look for more of your work.”
That may seem like common sense to some of you, but six months ago this message smacked me upside the head with a fresh perspective. It’s one thing for a professional writer to say this to you, but it’s another thing entirely to actually see witness it in real-time. I look at every finished story differently now. None of them are as important as I think they are. It’s all just practice. My job as a storyteller is to simply tell the damn story and move on to the next one. Then the next one. Then the next one.
The thing is, I’m still very much new to all this. I’m still early. A student of the trade. Storytelling is fun and can be an exciting time when you’re hit with the magic of crafting a yarn or two. I’m making a commitment to myself to let my art reflect who I am, warts and all. There are many stories I’ve written and not sent out because I think of them as “too out there”. Too weird. But after reading the excellent essay The Future is Weird from contemporary writer Prophet, I’ve decided it’s high time for me to shake the dust off these old tales and send them out2
Moving Forward in 2023
Flash Fiction Fridays
There are plans in motion for this year not just in the old fiction factory but also this newsletter. Going forward, Friday’s will be reserved for publishing flash fiction. Writing flash has proven to be great fun and I published my first piece, White Night, back in December 2022. I want to get more practice in and intend to post them here for you all to read every Friday starting next week. Go and read White Night, a short short story of 350 words.
The House That Pulp Built Returns!
I’ve done a piss poor job of sharing more and more lessons from the pulp writers last year. This year it’s going to change. Once a month, I’ll dig through the archives of pulp fiction and share with you, dear reader, the text, history, the works and historical findings of the lost era of pulp fiction. If you enjoyed reading previous editions such as A Primer on Crime Fiction or The Pulp Work Ethic then you can expect more in-depth pieces to come.
My Path to Pulp Writer Monthly Review
The Week-in-Reviews are dead moving forward. But if you are one of the few that are interested in following my personal journey of becoming a pulp writer, then fear not. At the beginning of the month I’ll give a monthly recap of what’s been going on in the fiction factory: what I’ve read, what I’ve written, submissions, rejections/acceptances, my writing process, and over all wins and losses for the month. Stay tuned.
If stuff like this intrigues or excites you about the future, consider supporting The Pulp Fictioneer by dropping some coin in the tip jar below. It’s important that I keep the written chronicles about the pulp era free to all readers now and in the future. You can help make that happen.
As I sit here alone in my study, typing away on my laptop while listening to my Jelly Roll Morton record, I can honestly say I am immensely proud of the progress I’ve made towards my fiction writing and the essays for The Pulp Ficitoneer. 2022 had it’s fair share of set backs, problems, challenges, and headache, but I’m still here telling a few tales, learning the craft, and building a catalogue of work that I hope will outlive me.
2023 is the year of publishing.
Harvey Stanbrough is professional fiction writer, immensely prolific, and all around good guy. If you want to see how a true craftsman demonstrates his craft go check out his blog The Daily Journal.
See Robert Heinlein’s Rules for Writers #4
Happy New Year to you Frank!
This is going to be a great 2023, Frank, thank you for helping me set the tone and direction for mine.